1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arrangement for heat treatment of steel wire, wherein the wire, after emerging from a continuous wire rolling mill, is placed by a laying head onto a horizontal conveyor and is transported on the horizontal conveyor in the form of a row of successive and overlapping loops. The wire is subjected to surface treatment during the transport and is collected at the end of the conveyor by a loop collecting unit to form a wire coil and is transferred to a coil conveying unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an arrangement of this type, it is possible, while the wire is placed on the horizontal conveyor, to subject the wire to heat treatment or to cool the wire, for example, by applying blown air or by spraying cooling liquids onto the wire loops. It is also known in the art to place heat insulation covers over the horizontal conveyor in order to intensify the heat treatment and to reduce heat loss.
In an arrangement of this type, it is not possible to subject the rolled wire to heat treatment by utilizing most of the rolling heat which is present in the wire after emerging from the rolling mill train. This can be achieved by so-called hood-type annealing means by coiling the wire into a wire coil immediately after emerging from the rolling mill train and covering the wire coil by a heat insulation hood under which the wire coil is slowly cooled down from the heat still present in the wire, or the wire coil can again be heated under the heat insulation hood by supplying heat and then cooling the wire coil, for example, by immersing the wire coil in a water bath after first removing the heat insulation hood.